| Motif | Name | Description |
| a23a | Who will see the Sun first? | Two persons or animals argue about who of them will be the first to see the rising sun. One who seemed to have less chances wins |
| a23b | First beams on the tree tops | Two persons or animals argue who will see the rising sun first. One who got to see not the sun itself but its reflection or the first beams on trees or mountain tops wins |
| a23d | Who will be the first in the calendar cycle? | Animals argue which of them should stand at the beginning of the calendar cycle (twelve months or years). Mouse obtains the first place |
| a32 | Figure on lunar disc | A figure or an imprint of some being or object are seen in the Moon. (For statistical analysis motifs A32A – A32J are also included into A32) |
| a32d | Man in the Moon | Human being or imprint of human being is seen in the moon |
| a32e | Person with an object in hands | Person who holds some object in his or her hands is seen in the moon (rare: in the sun) |
| a32f | Water-carrier in the Moon | Person who went to fetch water and/or holds in hands a container for liquid is seen in the moon |
| a32k | First to the Sun, then to the Moob | Person seen in the Moon initially had to get to the Sun or the Sun and the Moon argue who of them should get the person |
| a35 | Spots on the lunar disc | Dark spots on the lunar disc are dirt, blood, paint, traces of beating, burning, scratching, etc. on the Moon person's body or face (Kiliwa: spots on the Sun) and do not form any particular figure |
| a39a | Twelve months | Each of calender units (usually the months) that make the year is a separate object or person |
| a4 | Female sun | The Sun is female, the Moon is male or (more rare) also female |
| b109 | Person turns into bear | Person turns into a bear (origin of bears) |
| b115 | Evergreen trees | Coniferous or some other trees or shrubs (subshrubs) became evergree when the life elixir was spilled on them by chance |
| b120 | The hibernation of snottish people | There are creatures who hibernate having frozen snot under their noses |
| b16c | Salt-grinding mill | Magic mill is ordered to grind salt but not ordered to stop. It sinks into ocean and continues to work making the water salty |
| b33d | The old woman of winter | Old woman is incarnation of winter, is associated with snow, or there are several cold days between winter and spring (or fall) associated with a certain old woman |
| b42 | Cosmic hunt | Certain stars or constellations are interpreted as hunters, their dogs and game that the hunters pursue |
| b42b | Sky hunters pursue an ungulate | In the cosmic hunt tale the game pursued by the hunters is an ungulate (elk, deer, mountain sheep, etc.) |
| b42h | The Belt of Orion is the game, other star is the hunter | The Belt of Orion is the animal or three animals, other star (of the Orion or outside of this constellation) is the hunter |
| b46 | Big Dipper is seven men | Every one of the seven main stars of the Ursa mayor is a an adult man |
| b46a | Stolen star of the Pleiades | One of the stars of the Pleiades was separated from others (usually abducted) by stars of Big Dipper and now is seen among them) |
| b46a1 | Stars of Big Dipper are robbers | Stars of Big Dipper are thieves robbers |
| b46c | Big Dipper is seven persons or animals | Every main star of the Big Dipper is interpreted as a particular person or animal |
| b47 | The Pleiades bring cold | In former times or regularly the Pleiades or other group of stars produced or produce till now severe cold. (The heliacal set of the Pleiades is in May-June while in the Northern Hemisphere they are seen best of all in the winter time) |
| b50 | Whose blood is sweeter? | An insect feeds on human blood (flesh). Dangerous person asks it where it had sucked blood or whose blood (flesh) is the most delicious. Usually the insect lies or cannot answer (its tongue is cut off) and thanks to this dangerous person attacks certain plants or animals and not people |
| b51a | The snake is an enemy of the swallow | The snake is an enemy of the swallow (usually because swallow does not let snake to destroy people; the snake sends mosquito or other bloodsucking insect to get know whose blood is the most delicious; the insect flies back to report that human blood is the sweetest; swallow bites its tongue off and the snake gets to pull off feathers from the swallow's tail) |
| b87 | Alcor | Alcor (a weak star near the second star of the handle of the Big Dipper) is selected as a particular sky object |
| c19 | Acquisition of the sun | The Sun (the day light) that was absent, stolen or hidden appears (again) |
| c28 | Unconsidered promise | A demon obtains valuables essential for another person's (and for all the people) survival but is tricked to return the valuables |
| c3 | Snakes stops up a hole in the Noah’s arch | When a hole is opened in the arch (rare: in the ground) from which a torrent of water flows, a snake (eel, frog) stops it up with its own body |
| c31 | The wise hedgehog (cosmology) | A hedgehog proves to be smarter than gods and than other animals; he possesses the knowledge that is of crucial importance for survival of humans |
| c32c (motif is not in the correlation table) | Beware of cut off nails | The cut off nails (and hair) have special significance for the fate of the soul in the beyond or for the future of the entire world |
| e11 | The burned skin | Magic person reveals his true nature and/or remains with the real people after the object responsible for preserving the non-human appearance (usually an animal skin) is destroyed (usually burned) |
| e31a | Creators and rescuers of a girl | Several men take part in rescuing, creation or reanimation of a girl (rare: a bird) or several women take part in the reanimation of a dead man or they differetly express their grief. It is asked whose role was crucial (who behavior more noble) and/or who should be the spouse of the reanimated person. Or three men make something valuable and it is asked whose role in the corresponding enterprise was more important |
| e31a1 | Three men construct a woman which becomes alive: to whom does she belong? | Three (rare two or four) men take part in creation of a girl: one cuts her body of wood, another puts clothes on her, the third one makes her alive. To whom does she belong? |
| e31c | Rescuers of an abducted girl | Every one of several men had learned a unique skill thanks to which they save a girl abducted by demon or animal |
| e41 | Smith kneads iron with his bare hands | A skillful smith has a power to take and knead the hot iron with his bare hands producing the desired form. Usually the smith breaks some taboo and his power is lost |
| e41a | The invention of pincers | Crossed legs of a dog or jaws of a snake served as a model for the first pincers |
| e9h | Dove-wife | A man marries dove-woman |
| f100a | Chaste woman revives a man | To revive a man or to extract an arrow point from his body, a chaste woman or girl must touch his body or step over him |
| f100b | Chaste woman’s minor misdeed | Thanks to her chastity, a woman is able to do something that others cannot do but she does it only when a minor misdeed of her youth comes up to her |
| f5 | Brides for the first men | Person cannot or do not want to give his daughters in marriage to all the men who claim them for wives and transforms animals into girls. (Usually in the beginning of times or after the flood many men come to marry the only daughter of God or patriarch)transforms animals into girls |
| f62 | Incognito at the feast | An (ostensibly) sick (ugly, weak, poorly clad) person remains at home when others go to the feast. The person comes by himself or herself looking like a handsome man or beautiful girl. The man (woman) does not recognize him (her) and feels against her (him) sexual interestю (All texts with motif k57, Chinderella, are also included into f62) |
| f70 | Potiphar's wife: false accusation of sexual abuse | Woman makes vain overtures to young man and/or falsely accuses him of sexual abuse. Her husband believes that the young man is guilty, kills or tries to kill him |
| f70b | Revenge of a rejected woman | A woman revenges on a man who rejected her love but necessary not pretends to be an object of sexual harassment from his part |
| f70f | Sex is changed accidentally | Getting into a far away place, person discovers that his or her sex is changed |
| f9g | Brunhilde | A strong woman overcomes and kills suitors. Hero or his helper tames her (usually whips in the wedding night). The hero marries her |
| g6 | Primeval tree | One of the trees is the principal, original one (emerged before all the other; ancestor of wild or cultivated plants; ocean or rivers inside it; world axis; higher than all the others; overshadows sky) |
| h16 | Rivers of tears | Rivers of tears exist in the other world. Tears shed on earth fill there big containers |
| h16b | The basin of milk | A river (wave, lake, basin) of milk that exists on earth (and not among the stars) is mentioned in narratives (in different context) |
| h18 | Hoarded game released | Game animals were concentrated in one single place. Certain person lets them disperse in the world |
| h34e | The edible snow | Snow was edible or something edible was falling from the sky instead of the snow |
| h43a | Broken figure of the first man | After making human body, creator goes away for a time. In his absence another person makes attempt to break human figure that was not yet alive |
| h45 | The abused bread | A woman or child demonstrate no respect for bread soiling it with excrements. For this God punishes all the humanity |
| h6b | The life-medicine spilled on plants | The life-medicine is accidentally spilled not on men but on plants which become evergreen, capable for regeneration or producing fruits |
| h6c | The immortal raven | Raven is associated with death or contrasted with people as an immortal with mortals (is sent to the medicine of immortality; drinks itself water of immortality; gives instructions concerning funeral rites; etc.) |
| h6c1 | Valuables in exchange for the nestling | To obtain a desired object, person catches a child or spouse of an animal person (bird, snake, crab) and promises to release it as soon as its parent (spouse)) brings the object |
| h7 | The personified Death | Death (also Old Age, Disease, etc.) is a particular person not identical with the Master of the Dead. He kills people usually carrying away their souls |
| i13a | The horned serpent | Giant water-chthonic or sky serpent or dragon has horns or antlers on its head |
| i13c | Snake’s crown | Reptiles possess treasure which a person gets or tries to get. Usually it is a crown, jewel or small horns on the snake's head |
| i13d | Hibernating with snakes | A man gets into the dwelling of snakes and after a long time escapes or is permitted to go. In While in the dwelling of snakes, he usually licks a special stone that allows to live without water and food |
| i13e | The betrayed serpent | The serpent lets a man go on condition that he will not tell about their meeting. Under pain of death the man breaks his promise. The serpent instructs him how to dring the broth that will be made of his meat and revenges not on the man but on those who had forced him to break his word |
| i25 | The bribed guards | Way to the place of a certain person is guided by dangerous creatures (which often stand on the both sides of the pathway). Person placates them by gifts or nice talk, and they let him or her go the both ways, sometimes being punished for this by their master |
| i38 | The dog-heads | Some beings are half-men and half-dogs (usually anthropomorphic with heads of dogs) |
| i38a | The dog-husbands | Dogs or dog-headed men are husbands of human women |
| i46 | Rainbow belt | Rainbow is the ornamented part of the clothes, its decoration, a belt |
| i46a | Old woman’s rainbow | Rainbow is associated with an old woman |
| i46c | Rainbow rope | Rainbow is a rope to which a domestic animal is tied |
| i51a | Bull the earth-holder | Big mammal supports the earth |
| i58 | Milky Way is the way of birds | Milky Way is the path of migratory birds (especially wild geese) |
| i59 | Milky Way is spilled straw | Milky Way is a trace of people who spilled on their way something related to agriculture (straw, chaff, hay, more rare flour, peas) |
| i6 | Weather birds | A man meets a giant bird that brings with it clouds, rain, hail, thunderstorm, etc. |
| i61 | Milk on the Milky Way | Milky Way is a trace of spilled milk |
| i64 | Milky Way is a trace of animals | Milky Way is a trace of big animals who were walking or running along it |
| i82b | Venus is female | Morning and/or Evening Star is a female personage |
| i82h | Venus’ name is Čolpan | The name of the Venus is like Čolpan, Čolbon, Tsulmon, etc. |
| i85 | Polaris is a pole, a nail | Polaris is a (tethering) pole or a nail |
| i85a | Animals walk around Polaris | Hoofed animals are walking around Polaris or the movement of stars is compared with the movement of animals around a post |
| i87 | Skull as a cave | Personages use a shelter which proves to be an object related to the world of the giants (a skull, a shoulder-blade, a mitten) |
| i87aa | The big bull | Huge bull (rare: horse) is described: its head is in one field, its tail in another; a bathhouse on its tale, a lake on its back; person who is near the head walks a long time till he meets another neat the tail; etc. Usually the bull is killed and eaten (by people in Baltic Finnish traditions and in Russian bylina from Olonets area; by bird in most of southern traditions) |
| i87ab | Only child was able to pick it up | Strong men or a lot of people people cannot move the corpse of a killed person or creature but a child or a woman does it easily |
| i87ac | Bone in the eye | Something big or huge gets into the man’s eye but he takes it for a speck of dust. Usually a bird picks up and carries away an animal or a fish and drops its bone into an eye of a man. When the bone is found, it is dragged out with difficulty (people ride in a boat inside the eye, drag the bone with a fishnet, with many oxen, etc.) |
| i87ad | Hidden in a hollow tooth | A giant hides the pursued man in his moith – usually (or always) in a hollow tooth; or a man survives after getting into the giant's mouth hiding himself in a hollow tooth |
| i87b | The quest for a strong adversary | A man seeks a strong adversary to wrestle with and comes across person who is incomparably stronger than he |
| i89 | The lost caravan | There is an evil star or constellation that brings death and misfortune; usually travelers mistake at night some star for Morning Star, set off, take a wrong direction and perish or get into trouble |
| i95a | Orion is a balance | Orion is a balance, scales |
| j23 | A late son kills monsters | People (elder brothers, elder siblings, elder sister) disappear (one by one). A lonely woman has a baby or finds a baby or she becomes pregnant magically and gives birth to a boy or twins. The boy grows up, exterminates the antagonists, usually revives and releases those who had disappeared |
| j23c | Youngest brother kills monsters | People (elder brothers, elder siblings, elder sister) disappear (one by one). A lonely woman has a baby or finds a baby or she becomes pregnant magically and gives birth to a boy. The boy grows up, exterminates the antagonists, usually revives and releases those who had disappeared |
| j26 | Babies come out of the water | Baby heroes, embryos or objects from which they emerge are found in a river or lake or come to people out of the water |
| j28b | A hot scone | A youth gets to know that a woman (usually his mother) conceals from him important information about his father, brothers or bride. He causes her pain (usually putting hot scone, handful of hot grain, etc. into her hand) making her tell him the truth |
| j32 | To identify the night thief | Some valuables (foals, hay, apples, etc.) are regularly stolen. Nobody (the elder brothers) is able to catch the thief and only the hero (the younger brother) finds who it is |
| j32a1 | The night wreckers are horses | Every night somebody tramples down the grain field, steals hay, etc. The hero discovers that horses do it |
| j32d | Princess in a tower (The glass mountain) | The girl will marry a man who (riding on a horse or otherwise) would quickly reach a place that is almost inaccessible (the top of a tower, a mountain, the upper floor of a palace, the top of a staircase, bridge, the bottom of a deep cavity, etc.). Usually the girl herself is in the corresponding place |
| j32e | The new-born foals stolen | Every foal to which a mare gives birth is immediately stolen. The hero identifies the thief |
| j42 | Waters split apart | When person comes to the water body, waters are split apart so the person reaches the other bank walking on the dry ground |
| j46 | Enemy drowns | Antagonist perishes falling into the water or trying to cross a water body |
| j62c | Sister asks her brother to obtain impossible | To get rid of a young man, his female antagonist uses a stratagem. She tells his sister (rare: tells directly him) about some wonderful objects and the girl is overcome with the desire to have them. An attempt to obtain these objects entails a risk for one’s life. The youth sets off to obtain the objects |
| k100 | A faithful servant | A man gets to know about dangers that threaten another man (and often about turning into stone of anybody who would warn about these dangers). He helps the man to escape the dangers though his behavior seems strange or hostile |
| k100a | Tobias | A young man lets free a fish or an animal that was caught or he or his father renders a help to somebody. When the young man sets off for a journey, the grateful creature or person in guise of a stranger or animal becomes his companion and protector |
| k100b | A grateful dead | A young man helps to bury a man (pays the debts of the dead man, honors a saint). When the young man sets off for a journey, the grateful dead (the saint) in guise of a stranger becomes his protector |
| k100c | Girl’s bridegrooms are bitten by a snake | . The hero or his companion eliminate the source of danger |
| k100e | Aggressive stories | Stories act as particular persons: become harmful because they think that a certain person does not treat them in a correct way |
| k100f | Youth lets the fish go | When an unusual fish (rare: bird or some water being) is caught, the (young) man lets it go. His father (the king) drives him away or the man goes away by his own initiative. The saved fish (bird) helps him |
| k102 | Woman associated with the hero conspires in favor of his enemy | A woman who initially is friendly to the hero (his mother, sister, more rare his wife, sexual partner) begins to cooperate with his enemy. For this she provokes the hero to do something that is mortally dangerous for him |
| k107 | Lost husband found | A woman is abandoned by her magic husband. She finds him and becomes his wife again |
| k107a | Iron shoes to be worn out | Wandering to the purpose of her or his travel person has to worn out her or his iron shoes or staff |
| k108 | A revived wife betrays her husband | Wife dies, husband revives her, she abandons him for another man and is punished |
| k110 | Reflection of golden sword | Person must get a treasure from the bottom of water body. He understands that what he sees is a reflection in water while the treasure is high in a tree |
| k116a | King is killed after putting on a strange attire | A powerful person abducts or is going to abduct a poor man’s wife. She tricks him to put on a strange attire (often her husband’s clothes). After this his men or dogs kill him taking for the poor man (fool, devil) |
| k117a | To make a mute woman speak | A girl who keeps silence is promised to one who would make her speak; a man with much difficulty makes his magic wife speak |
| k118 | The prohibited room | Master of the house allows person to feel himself (herself) free bit not to look into particular place. The person breaks prohibition |
| k119 | Animal helper marries a poor boy to a princess | To make a poor man rich (usually to marry him to a rich girl or to marry a poor girl to a prince), an animal makes other people believe that the groom is rich already. The man becomes prosperous indeed |
| k119b | Wild animals presented to the king | Helpful trickster (usually the fox or the cat) deceives wild animals and brings them to the king saying that they are presented to him by a rich person |
| k12 | Woman is lost and returned | By trick or by force, a rival or adversary kidnaps hero's wife or bride. The man gets her back |
| k120a | The averted incest (sister and brother) | A man is going to marry his sister (often puts certain condition on his future marriage, only his sister complies with them). The girl gets to escape |
| k120a2 | Not my mother but my mother-in-law | Members of the girl’s family want to marry her to a man who should not be her marriage partner (usually it is her own brother). They ask her to name them as her in-laws or the girl herself tells that they are not anymore her mother, sister, etc. but her mother-in-law, sister-in-law, etc. or her worst enemies |
| k121 | Wanderer at a crossroad | It is written at a crossroad that following one of the paths person will safely return and following another it will not return (there is often a third path following which person either returns or not). Hero follows the dangerous path |
| k131 | Men fight over magic objects | A man on a journey meets tree or two persons who are quarreling over the division of magic objects (a flying carpet, seven mile boots, etc.). The man promises to render a judgment, but he asks first to try our the objects or suggests the owners to run a race and uses opportunity to escape with the objects |
| k135 | Seven with one stroke | A weak and timid man or boy overcomes accidentally powerful enemies and gets high esteem |
| k136b | Rubies from a river | Person finds precious stones or miraculous flowers (usually in a river) and gets to know whence they originate |
| k14 | Precious advices | A man gives his last money for simple advices. Each of them saves his life or helps to achieve success or he does not follow the advices and gets into trouble |
| k141 | Three injurious fairies | Supernatural women make harm to people. Hero overcomes them and usually marries them |
| k145 | The predestined death because of the wolf | A wolf is predicted to become a cause of death of a person or the person must die at his wedding day. The prophesy becomes true. If it is about the marriage, the bride herself turns into a wolf and kills her bridegroom |
| k145b | The bride devours her bridegroom | When a girl and a man remain alone (usually during their wedding night), the girl turns into a predator animal or a monster and devours the man |
| k14a | Thrown into the oven himself | An antagonist orders to kill the first one who will come in the morning to a certain place. The hero becomes late by chance, the antagonist or his wife or son come and are thrown into the fire |
| k151 | The fisherman and his wife | Supernatural creature fulfills a poor man’s moderate request. After this he or his wife asks for ever bigger gifts till the angry helper punishes them (usually takes all his gifts away) |
| k152 | The devil is frightened and runs away | A man saves a devil (snake, dangerous animal) who suffers from proximity of certain object or person. The grateful devil promises to enter a princess and abandon her as soon as the man comes to cure her. The man will get a reward but he should not try such a trick again. The man scares the devil forever telling him that the object or person of which the devil is afraid will be near soon |
| k152a | The evil woman and the devil in one pit | A man throws his evil wife into the pit or well. The devil (snake, predator animal, etc.) who had been there before is grateful when the man pulls him to the surface or jumps our himself: even he is afraid of the shrewish woman |
| k154a | Men in the harem | Solving a riddle, a boy or youth unmasks a daughter (wife, minister) of a powerful person: house-maids (or some of them) are men, the minister plans to kill his master) |
| k155 | Prince grown up in seclusion | A man (usually a king) isolates his son (daughter) in a closed room, Once the boy (girl), usually because of some chance event gets to see the world outside and his (her) isolation comes the end |
| k157 | Robbers killed one by one | Person tricks his enemies to leave their enclosure one by one and cuts off their head as soon as the next one appears before him. In rare cases the multi-headed enemy thrusts his heads on by one and the hero cuts them off |
| k158 | Who is the woman on a portrait? | To find the lost husband (and other men who were helpful or cruel to her), a woman demonstrates her portrait in a public place and calls to her everybody whose reaction shows that they recognized who was represented |
| k159 | Peas poured under the feet | When two persons are fighting, somebody wants one of them fall (while another be firm on his feet) and for this throws something under his feet |
| k160a | Demon’s answers to his wife’s questions | A woman who lives in the house of a supernatural person conceals the man who had come to her and puts questions to this person. The answers that are received and became known to the man are of great importance for him |
| k161 | The liberated dragon | Person imprisoned a dragon (demon, Thunder, etc.) and warns the other not to open a certain room (not to give water to the prisoner, etc.). The instruction is broken and the demon liberates himself that has undesirable consequences |
| k167 | The children's king | A boy who plays making believe that he is a king demonstrates wisdom and/or magic capacities |
| k167b | How does the lamb in the ewe’s womb look like? | The boy is able to determine the sex and the color of a baby-animal in its mother’s womb |
| k168 | An illusory life as long as a second | Person gets to live a long life rich in events but eventually finds himself in the same place and moment from which the story begins. |
| k172 | Deaf bride without hands and feet | When a potential bridegroom comes to a man, the latter tells that his daughter is a deformed cripple. The bride proves to be a beauty |
| k175 | The wind blows the flour away | A person carries some flour, the wind blows it away. The person appeals to a powerful person and usually gets compensation |
| k176 | A man in search of the woman | A (young) man sets off to find or to return his bride or his wife |
| k177 | The travelling heroine | A girl or young woman sets off to find or return her fience or her husband or she escapes from a fanger and ultimately marries happily |
| k180 | The time of wolf and the time of fox | A ruler has a dream and demands to explain it. A snake tells a man that this dream signals the beginning or a time period when people act in particular way. The episode repeats with different dreams. Every time the man’s behavior towards the snake proves that the corresponding period really has begun |
| k2 | The destroyed ladder | Hero climbs up (e.g. to a tree) or down (e.g. into a deep cave) by ladder, rope, from branch to branch, etc. The rope etc. breaks or is intentionally destroyed and the hero cannot return to the ground. (All cases of motif K2A, besides the Koreans, also contain motif K2) |
| k24 | Stolen clothes of supernatural woman | Women (rare: men) who possess supernatural power and usually come from a non-human world (from sky, from under the water, they are winged beings, bird- or animal-persons; rare: a girl of higher social status than the hero) take off their clothes (feather skins and the like) or part of it. Because a person hides the clothes (of one of them), their owner(s) have (has) to marry him or help him (rare: her) |
| k25 | Magic wife | A man consciously marries a woman related to the non-human world |
| k27 (motif is not in the correlation table) | Competitions and difficult tasks | Person is suggested to fulfill tasks that are mortally dangerous or cannot be fulfilled without supernatural helpers or capacities. The person fulfills the tasks and remains alive. A contest between persons has form of a competition or game in which the loser is deprived of his status or life |
| k27hh | To sort grain | A task: to sort a large amount or small particles of different kind (usually seeds of different plants) mixed in container or to count such particles or to pick up the spilled grains |
| k27l1 | To be frozen in the ice | Person agrees to test his strength being frozen in the ice but fails to break it and to get free |
| k27n | Difficult tasks of the in-laws | A man must fulfill difficult tasks (to win competition) to receive the permission for a marriage |
| k27n1 | Task-giver is a king or a chief | Person who gives difficult tasks to the hero and/or person who demands the fulfillment of certain conditions from those who want to marry his daughter is a prominent figure in social hierarchy. He is a head of the socio-political unit of community or super-community level and is neither a member of the hero’s household nor a mythical being |
| k27q | Milk of the wild beast | Hero is sent to bring milk of a wild animal or milk in possession of a dangerous creature or person |
| k27r | To visit the world of the dead | A task: to bring object or news from the land of the dead |
| k27u | Hide-and-seek | Hero and his adversary play hide-and-seek. The hero finds his adversary but the adversary cannot find him |
| k27u2 | News from the tumbleweed | Powerful person asks the hero to get know where the tumbleweed goes or what are its news |
| k27w | Monster brought by the hero kills the task-giver | Task-giver asks to bring him dangerous being or object possessed by a moster or deity. Hero fulfills the task. The beast, monster, deity or the object itself kills the task-giver |
| k27x2 | To steal an egg from under the bird | Person is able to steal an egg (a nestling, to put it back) from under the bird (to change the bird’s feather; to steal an embryo from animal’s womb, etc.) |
| k27x3 | The man persecuted because of his beautiful bride | A powerful person coverts a beautiful bride or wife of a man and gives him impossible tasks to get rid of him |
| k27x5 | Helpful persons of different age | Setting off for a search of a woman or magic objects, a man comes across several (usually three) supernatural (often demonic) persons who help him. All the persons are similar but usually every next one is older (younger) than another |
| k27z | Game of chance for life and death | Person becomes a master of another after winning a game (game of chance or Intellectual game but not a sport tournament) |
| k27z1 | Bird, horse and princess | Helpful animal instructs the hero how to steal an object he needs to get but not to take anything else (bird, but not cage, horse but not bridle, etc.) The hero breaks prohibition, is caught but released on condition that he brings another wonderful object. Situation is repeated and the last task is to bring a girl. Ultimately the hero gets both the girl and all the objects |
| k27z3 | Cat with a lamp | A man trains a cat (monkey, dog) to hold lighted candle (lamp) on its head or to extinguish the light by a signal. When a mouse (a rat) runs through the room, the cat drops the candle (forgets about the lamp) and chases the mouse |
| k27z4 | The trained animal of the gambler | Person always wins a game thanks to a cat (or a mouse) who carries the lamp (or puts the light out in a certain moment). The hero releases a mouse (or correspondingly a cat), the cat runs after it and the person loses the game |
| k27z4b | Wife disguised as a man saves her husband | A man goes away, comes across a deceiver and loses freedom and property. His wife comes unrecognized in the man’s guise, punishes the deceiver and saves her husband |
| k27z5 | An agreement to marry the would be born children | Two men agree to marry their future children if a girl and a boy will be born. The girl’s parents evade the given obligation. The boy grows up and finds his bride |
| k29a | Surviving in a fire | Hero demonstrates his supernatural abilities remaining alive in a burning hot chamber, stove, bonfire, among burning vegetation |
| k2a | Hero marooned in the underworld | Hero is sent to the lower world though a well, precipice, etc. After he obtains valuables (young women), his envious companions cut the rope to get rid of him but he succeeds in returning back |
| k32 | The false wife | An ugly, old, lazy, etc. woman or (in Chaco) a male trickster comes to man under disguise of his wife or bride who is driven out, confined to the underworld, killed, etc. |
| k32a | Travelling man leaves his wife or daughter for a short time | A man travels with his wife or daughter. Another woman or a demonic person replaces her when the man goes away for a short time or (rare) falls asleep |
| k32g | Punishment: torn apart by horses | To punish an antagonist, he or she is tied to a horse (camel, bull) and dragged or he or she is torn apart (usually by horses) |
| k33 | Drowned woman remains alive | A young woman is transformed into an animal, pushed into the water, into the underworld or she herself has to plunge into water (acquire animal form). Her connection with the human world is not completely lost, however, and usually she is helped to return to the people |
| k33a | Younger brother transformed into animal | Siblings (most often younger brother and elder sister) leave their home. One of them (most often the brother, most rare several brothers) turn into animal (usually an ungulate) or (rare) a bird but (in the most cases) ultimately acquires his or her human form again |
| k33f | Basin of honey and basin of oil | Two or more different kinds of valuable edible liquids like oil, honey, milk, etc. are available or imaginable. Cf. motif n34 |
| k33g | Fruits of two kinds | One who eats certain fruit (leave, etc.) gets horns (long nose, etc.) or turns into an animal. After eating another fruit (leave) person recovers his or her normal body |
| k35a | Hero brands his rivals | In exchange for temporal advantages, person agrees to be maimed or branded |
| k35c | Ogre in a well | An ogre (a dragon, king of the sea) has not killed a man who descended to him as other people had thought but rewarded because the greeted him and/or gave a correct answer to his question |
| k35c1 | The best is one whom you love | A mighty person asks a man which of two women is prettier, what is the most beautiful thing, and the like. Giving a correct answer, the man is not killed like those who were before him but receives a reward |
| k36 | Bewitched into animal | Person is temporary transformed into animal (usually into a dog or coyote or into donkey, ox, etc.). When he acquires his human guise again, the antagonist suffers similar transformation. In some texts only the hero or only the antagonist is transformed |
| k37 | Recognition-test | To return or to get his or her son, wife, husband, domestic animal or (rare) object, person must recognize her, him or it among several identical persons, animals or objects |
| k37a | To recognize a man | Person must recognize her (or his) son or husband among several identical persons or animals |
| k38 | Hero helps the nestlings | For helping its children, their powerful mother or father who is a giant bird or (rare) other flying being helps the hero |
| k38b | The nestlings and the aggressive snake | A serpent or water monster regularly devours or injures children of a bird or other flying creature (almost always nestlings of giant bird). The hero kills the serpent (monster) |
| k38c | Bird brings the hero to his destination | After the hero helps a powerful bird (usually does good to her nestlings), the grateful bird brings him to the place where he is eager to get or tells to do it one of her nestlings. (It is not the vertical movement between layers of the world. According to the Sumerian variant, the bird endows the hero with capability to move with extraordinary speed and directs him to his destination) |
| k38d | Monster blocks waters | A monster blocks sources of water (or sends floods) and usually gives some (promises not to send floods) in exchange for human victims or valuables. Hero kills the monster |
| k38d1 | A girl sacrificed to a dragon | To appease a water monster (water spirits, gods) or to put an end to the drought or flood, a girl is sacrificed or descends into the water by her own will |
| k38f | The dragon-slayer | A reptile monster demands humans (usually virgins) as a sacrifice or abducts a girl or closes sources of water. Hero kills him. Monster’s victims do not play an active part in the plot |
| k38f6 | The fire-creature | A creature that consists of fire is mentioned |
| k39 | Man feeds his own flesh to a creature who helps him | Person has to feed powerful creature (usually a giant bird) giving it regularly pieces of meat. When meat supply is exhausted, he cuts off a piece of his own flesh |
| k56 | The kind and the unkind girls | One of (step)sisters, co-spouses or young female neighbors meets a being that is able to reward and to punish. She behaves herself properly and is rewarded. Another (other) girl comes to the same being but behaves in a wrong way and is punished (not rewarded). |
| k56b | The worthy man is rewarded, the unworthy punished | First one, then another man meets a powerful person or persons. The first man is worthy and rewarded with treasure, prestige or the like. The second man (or two men) follows him, behaves in a wrong way and is punished |
| k56c | Golden axe | A man loses an axe. A spirit or a powerful official suggests him a golden axe but the man does not accept it. The spirit (official) gives him axes of gold and silver as a reward for his honesty. Usually another man intentionally loses his axe, claims the golden one but receives nothing |
| k57 | Cinderella | A girl who conceals her beauty and/or is poor and oppressed by her stepmother puts on a splendid attire and comes incognito to a feast where a man of high status falls in love with her. He marries her after identifying her by an object given to her or lost by her or (rare) seeing how she changes her clothes |
| k60c | Touchy with king, patient with stableman | King’s wife is extremely touchy and cannot suffer a slightest pain. She does not say a word, however, when her lover who is a servant or a demon is beating her |
| k61d | Hard work made her ugly | Young woman’s bridegroom or husband gets to believe that she is extraordinarily industrious. To conceal the deception, she herself or somebody else makes the man believe that because of hard work women become ugly or change into animals. The man prohibits his wife to work anymore |
| k64a | Blinded cyclopes | Person blinds sleeping ogre or ogress and escapes from him or her |
| k65b | Humans and spirits | Spirits or unpleasant animals (reptiles, worms, etc.) are (often: concealed from the eyes of God or deformed) children or miscarriages of the same human couple or the same primeval ancestor who produced first human beings |
| k65c | The various children of Eve | A woman conceals from God part of her children (rare: all of them) or part of domestic animals that are under her care. The concealed children become poor people or non-human beings and the concealed domestic animals become wild |
| k65c3 | Eve is ashamed to have many children | The woman (alone or with her husband) hides from the God part of her children because she is ashamed to have so many |
| k66 | Extraordinary companions | Several companions have extraordinary abilities (one who runs fast, one who eats great quantities, one who produces or can withstand severe frost, etc.); a hero comes across and takes for companions several men, each of them being involved into a special and unusual activity |
| k67b | Bargain not to become angry | Person of a low social position (a man) makes an agreement with a person of high social position (an ogre) that the master must never become angry with the servant. The servant abuses the master until the latter erupts in anger and has to be severely punished or to pay a great fee |
| k67c | Skin ribbon ripped off from the back | Person agrees that under certain conditions another may rip off some skin from his back or cut off his ears, nose, etc. |
| k67d | Flight of the master with his goods in the bag | A master (ogre, devil, wife) tries to get away from his farmhand (her husband). The farmhand hides in the master’s bag (chest) so that the master unwittingly takes him along |
| k72 | Three maidens | Powerful person listens in conversation of three (rare: two or four) women. Each of them tells what she would do if the person marries her. One promises to bear his son (children) who would have wonderful qualities, two others promise to practice some kind of work or (more rare) marry people of lower status |
| k73 | Children of the youngest wife | A young woman promises to bear a wonderful children (wonderful son). In her husband's absence other people (co-wives, mother-in-law, etc.) try to kill the mother and/or the child, usually slandering the young woman |
| k73a4 | Baby child substituted with a pup | Hostile women substitute baby of the newly made mother with a pup (inform the baby’s father that his wife has given birth to a pup) |
| k73a8 | The wonderful children: brother and sister | Woman gives birth to wonderful boy and girl. Being substituted with animals or objects and thrown away, they survive and triumph over their enemies |
| k73b | Innocent woman punished | A woman who was falsely accused of killing her new-born child or giving birth to pups and the like is punished in such a way that she must suffer from filth and be taunted by passers by |
| k74 | Hero, his companions and a dwarf | The hero and his companion or companions live together. Every morning one stays at home while another or others go to hunt, etc. A demonic person comes, eats up all the food and beats the cook. Or the man who remained at home comes to the demon himself in search of fire and is maltreated by him. The hero kills or neutralizes the demon |
| k74a | Only the hero gets to overcome the demon whose track he then follows | Every time a demon commits an outrage upon one of the men who remains at home. When it is the hero’s turn, he overcomes the demon and follows his track to his world |
| k75 | The youngest daughter is willing (The loathsome bridegroom) | A girl (usually the youngest of several sisters) does not reject but marries a poor, sick, dirty, old, too young, non-human, etc. man who later demonstrates his supernatural qualities |
| k75a | Thrown apple hits the chosen one | Boy or girl selects one person among many throwing an object (usually an apple) into him or her. This way a girl makes a choice of a husband, a young man of a bride, a boy identifies his father |
| k75a1 | The youngest son-in-law should live in the stable | The sovereign orders his youngest daughter (together with a man chosen by her) to live in conditions that do not correspond to her high status. Her father does not know that her chosen one is not a poor wretch as he seems to be but a prince |
| k76 | A strange son | A boy born into a family or found by his adoptive parents has a strange guise (ball of meat, nut, bag, half of a man, an animal). He possesses magic power, becomes a handsome man and usually marries a girl of high social status. The magic spouse of a princess originally has a non-human or monstrous appearance |
| k77b1 | The wolf flees from the wolf-head | When domestic animals meat the predators, they – deliberately or unintentionally – behave in such a way that the predators escape in panic |
| k80c1 | The tell-tale calf’s head | A person brings to a king or has at his home something edible. At the decisive moment fruits or meat turn into human remains. The person imprisoned (and executed) |
| k80c2 | The treasure finders who murder one another | Three (two, more) men find (rob) a treasure. One of them goes away for a while. Those who stay kill him when he returns but die later from eating food (drinking wine) which he had poisoned |
| k80c3 | A name helps to reveal the murderer | Before his death a man asks his murderer to go to his pregnant wife, let she gives the child certain name. Hearing an unusual name of the child, a powerful person initiates the investigation, the murderer confesses his crime |
| k80c4 | Mute witnesses of the crime | In a deserted place, a man kills another. After some time he is exposed thanks to circumstances and facts that do not seem important and do not report on the crime directly (the victim’s last words; objects or live beings that were or appeared on the place of the murder). (All texts that contain motifs K80c, K80c1, K80c3, K80c4, also contain a more general motif K80c4) |
| k8c | Jonah: swallowed by terrestrial animal | Person gets into the belly of ground animal or bird. He kills it from the inside and/or returns to earth by himself (i.e. not extracted by other people) |
| k8c1 | First swallowed by herbivorous animal and then by wolf | Tiny boy is first swallowed by chance by a big herbivorous animal and then carried away by a wolf began to eat the animal's offal |
| k90 | The black and the red ones | A man gets to see two fighting monsters or animals (usually of contrasted colors like red and black, black and white). He helps one of them and/or one of them helps him |
| k92a | The princess responsible for her own fortune | A girl driven away from home or married to a poor man become prosperous |
| k92c | Wife is weaving, husband is selling | A princess or a fairy becomes the wife of a poor man. She weaves or embroiders a kerchief (or something else) and sends him to sell it. This is the first step to their ultimate success |
| k93b2 | Conception from eaten fruit | After eating a fruit (usually an apple, in Northern traditions also an egg), the sterile woman gives birth to a son or twins |
| k94 | Bird of luck (eaten up head) | Person eats magic bird, fish, small animal, or fruit and becomes prosperous and powerful |
| k98 | (Animal) helper turns into household | An animal or (rare) a person that gave birth to the hero or supported him for a long time asks his master or son to kill him or her. Its (her) remains turn into a house with a household where the hero can live |
| k99 | Prophecy of future sovereiniy | A young man or (rare) a girl has a (day-)dream that predicts his or her future triumph. The dreamer either conceals or reports its contest to his family and in both cases is punished for too high opinion of himself. In the beginning the dreamer sometimes sells his dream to another young man, who becomes the protagonist of the tale. Adventures that follow explain the contest of the dream. The youth becomes rich and happy (e.g. marries heiresses of two kingdoms, that in the dream were symbolized by two suns or a sun and a moon), the girl marries king's son |
| k99a2 | The sold dream | Person has a dream, another person buys it and acquires the fortune that the dream promised |
| k99a3 | The happy dream: Sun, Moon and stars | A young man has a dream: he sees the Sun, the Moon and a star (all of them or some of these luminaries). When the narrative come to the end, the man understands the meaning of the dream: these are people who love or adore him |
| k99b | Eloping with the wrong man | At night a girl’s lover has to carry her away but falls asleep or is late. She is carried away by another man who happened to be on the place |
| l100d | The entrapped suitors | A pretty, faithful wife is courted by one or several men, one of them usually a clergyman. With her husband’s consent, she invites the suitor(s) to a private rendezvous. Before the first man’s wishes are gratified, the next one arrives and then the husband himself. The suitor or suitors are caught in an uncomfortable position and then killed, punished in some other manner, ridiculed, made to pay ransom, to work, etc. |
| l100g | The goose with one leg | The servant is asked to prepare a goose (chicken, etc.), eats one leg and maintains that the goose had only one leg enforcing his point by showing geese who stand on one leg. The master shoots away the geese so that they use both legs. Usually the servant replies that if he had frightened the roasted goose, it would have showed its second leg as well |
| l104 | Fugitive and pursuer change guises | A fugitive turns in succession into different animals or objects. A pursuer does the same, every time becoming an animal or a person who is dangerous for the fugitive in his given guise |
| l10a | Demon comes to hunter’s camp-fire | A hunter spends night in a desolate place. A demon comes to his fire. When the demon falls asleep or goes away for a while, the hunter puts his clothes over a log and hides nearby. When the demon attacks the log taking it for the man, the hunter wounds or kills the demon |
| l116a | Doe with golden horns | Hunting a doe (a deer), hero gets to the place of a magician or demon; the doe is a bewitched person or demon |
| l120 | Snake-women turn into apple-trees | Hero listens in conversation of demonic beings who plan to turn into something edible, attractive, etc. and to destroy those who touch them. The hero neutralize the demons beforehand |
| l125 | Demonic wife recognized | A man marries a beauty but catches her in a situation when her not human nature is revealed. After this their marriage breaks down |
| l125a | Thirsty demonic wife | A man marries a woman who is really a demon. Her real nature is revealed when in the night being thirsty and unable to find any water inside the house she turns into a snake (flies away letting her body members, etc.) |
| l15c | Hero lies and remains unharmed | Dangerous person tells simple-heartedly what he is afraid of giving the hero a good opportunity to scare him |
| l15d | The external soul | Life of a person or creature is preserved outside of his (her, its) body. Person or creature dies after the corresponding object is destroyed |
| l18 | Multi-headed bird | A bird with two or more heads on top of one body is described in tales or represented in art |
| l19b | Beings with odd number of heads | Being (any besides birds) with more than ten heads or with odd (but more than one) number of heads are described in tales or represented in art. If beings with ever more number of heads are named, the row ends with a being that has odd (or more than ten) number of heads |
| l19b1 | The seven-headed monster | Описывается или изображается чудовище (обычно змей) о семи головах. При перечисления существ по мере возрастания у них числа голов ряд заканчивается на семи |
| l37a | To get know causes of problems | |
| l37b | Secrets accidentally overheard | Person accidentally overhears secrets of animals or demons and thus gets to know the causes of his and other people's misfortunes |
| l37b4 | The magic medicine is in the body of a dog | Overhearing conversation of animals or ghosts, person gets to know that the meat (brain, blood) of a dog of a nearby shepherd has magic effect |
| l42g | Hansel and Gretel | Step mother or more often father (persuaded by his wife) abandons children in a desolate place. Getting to the ogre or ogress, children (or at least one of them) survive and ultimately achieve success |
| l42g1 | Chops are heard, woodcutter is gone | Father (step mother) abandons children in the forest. He (she) hangs a plank (gourd, shoe, etc.) on a tree that is striking trunk under the wind. Children believe that he is still nearby cutting woods |
| l64 | Removable head | Person removes part of his or her body (head, scalp, lungs) and then puts it back |
| l65a | The cannibal sister | A girl born to the family or found proves to be a monster, devours people. Her brother escapes, (usually marries and returns home, finds that everybody had been eaten up), runs away, she pursues him but cannot get |
| l65b | Dogs save their master | A demonic woman or (rare) her paramour or a monster is going to kill a man usually after driving him up a tree. At the last moment the man's dogs or other animals or birds who are the man's pets come and kill the demon |
| l65b3 | The escape on the tree | Persons climbs a tree and thanks to this escapes from a demon (who usually tries to fell the tree) |
| l65b4 | Tooth as an axe | Person extracts his or her tooth to use it as a weapon or a tool (often an axe) |
| l72 | The obstacle flight | Running away from a dangerous being, person throws small objects behind him or her which turn into mighty obstacles on the way of the pursuer |
| l72a | Comb becomes a thicket | Running away from a dangerous being, person throws a comb (a brush) that turns into mighty obstacle (usually a thicket) on the way of the pursuer. (In South America the motif is probably of European origin) |
| l72b | Whetstone becomes a mountain | Running away from a dangerous being, person throws objects that turn into mighty obstacles on the way of the pursuer. One of the thrown objects is a whetstone which turns into a mountain |
| l72c | Obstacle flight: the thrown mirror | Running away from a dangerous being, person throws a pair of scissors behind him or her creating an obstacle on the way of the pursuer |
| l85 | One-sided people | One-sided people have one leg and/or also one arm, one half of a head, etc. The second leg is not cut or burned off, preserved as a stump but is absent completely |
| l9 | Sharp body members | Body members of a person has the form of cutting or piercing weapon |
| l92 | Feigned suggestion to help the ogre | Person escapes to a tree or high rock. An ogre tries to cut it down. Some person or animal suggests the ogre to have a rest, promises to work instead of him but spoils his work or (in Subarctic) kills him when the ogre gives him his axe. (Africa versions have Eurasian origins) |
| l93a | Helpful fox | Cunning fox, jackal or coyote saves particular person or many people, helps them |
| l94 | Child promised to demon | A demon helps a man or a woman or lets him or her free. As a reward, the person is forced to promise to give the demon his child |
| l94d | A tale of a tail | Demonic person considers a man to blame for treading on the tail of a tale |
| l95 | Coming back to pick up toys | Person (usually a kid or lad) returns to the former place to pick up the forgotten object (often a toy) and is caught there by a demonic being |
| l95b | Parents collaborate with a demon against their child | When a man or a woman promises to give his or her child to a demon, he or she does not try to save the child but help the demon to catch him or her. Despite all, the boy or girl escapes from the demon |
| l96a | Oh, dear! | When person sighs or utters an interjection, another one (usually a demon) emerges because his name is spelled like Ahh, Ohhoi, etc. |
| l96b | The yogi boiled in his own pot of oil | A man comes into the power of a yogi or demon. He asks the man to walk round the boiling pot of oil or to prostrate himself before the image of a deity. The man asks him to show how to do it and pushes him in or the pot or beheads him |
| l9e | Copper nose | The nose of anthropomorphic being is like a beak of copper or iron |
| m100b | Jump from a cliff | An animal-person provokes another to jump from of a bluff or cliff (tree) because his father (grandfather, etc.) could do it. The one yielded to provocation jumps and dies or is caught by the provoker |
| m106 | Meaningful name | Person lies that his name is so and so. Others understand it not as a name but as a common word and behave accordingly |
| m114 | Rope of sand | Person is suggested to twist (or he really twists) a rope or make other object of sand, ash, smoke, etc. |
| m114a | Clothes of stone | Person is suggested to make clothes of stone or iron or to skin a stone |
| m114c | To protect from rain by his own body | Person cannot understand why the clothes (firewood, etc.) of another are dry after the rain – he protected them with his own body (during the rain was in a shelter) |
| m114c | To protect from rain by his own body | Person cannot understand why the clothes (firewood, etc.) of another are dry after the rain – he protected them with his own body (during the rain was in a shelter) |
| m114g | The camel is high, the goat has a long beard | Only a young boy gives clever answers to the questions or riddles of a powerful man. When this man asks why they sent to him a boy and not a higher and elder person, the boy says that if the man needs somebody who are high and whose beard is long, these are camel and goat |
| m116 | Wisdom of hidden old man saves kingdom | People are ordered to kill their fathers or (rare) mothers (the Nyoro: to deprive them of power and property; the Baluch: not to take them setting off for the journey). An old man concealed by his son helps to resolve difficult problem |
| m116a | Ungrateful son reproved by naive actions of own son | When an aged father is banned from the table and served his meals in a wooden cup by his son and his daughter-in-law, the little grandson starts to build a similar cup for his parents to use when they grow old. Thereupon the couple starts to reflect on their undignified behavior. Thinking of their own old age, they bring the old father back to the family table (previously type 980B). A son gives his father half a blanket (carpet, cape, cloth) to keep warm. Thereupon the little grandson keeps the other half of the blanket and explains that he will save it for his parents for when they are old (previously type 980A.). An aged father is abandoned by his son in the wilderness (abyss) in a cart (sledge, basket). The grandson keeps it in order to use it in the same way for his parents when they have grown old. They reflect on their behavior. (previously type 980C). The ungrateful son drags his old father out of the house. At the threshold the father says, "Do not drag me further; I dragged my own father only this far!". The son reflects on his bad behavior |
| m116b | Monster who pursues people and a wise old man | Monster pursues people who must run away to escape from it. An old man gives advice to a young man how to kill it from an ambush |
| m124 | A bull’s tail | Person buries a tail or head of a bull or other domestic animal with a tail or horns outside. He explains that the animal sank into the ground and usually asks the others to pull the tail (horns). When they are “torn off”, he tells that people are guilty of the animal being lost |
| m127 | Lost tail of the fox | After losing his tail (ear) an (animal) person tries to trick other animals of his species or other people of his group to lose their tails (ears) too |
| m127a | The quail makes the fox laugh | Trickster animal asks a bird to make him laugh. The bird sits on the head of a woman (child, cow, etc.), other person tries to kill the bird, hits the wife (breaks cow's horn, etc.). Or the bird distracts person attention to let the trickster steal the person’s food |
| m127b | A jug as a trap | Animal person attaches a vessel or its part to his body, puts it into the water, the vessel is heavy and drags him into the water |
| m127c | Frightened without reason | An animal person mistakes an object abandoned by chance or intentionally for an evidence of a danger and behaves inadequately |
| m130 | Fox and bird in one hole | Fox and bird hide from a hunter together in one and the same hole. The bird makes believe he is dead and escapes (with the fox or alone) |
| m135a | The wolf's reverses | Wolf (more rare other predator animal) comes to different (more than two species) domestic animals (animals and people) to eat them but agrees to fulfill their requests and remains without his meal and usually becomes beaten (killed) |
| m135b | Wolf regrets for being so stupid | Wolf (rare: jackal, fox) comes to different domestic animals (rare: only to one animal) to eat them but agrees to fulfill their demands. As a result he remains hungry and usually beaten and accuses himself that his ways were so stupid (“Am I a mollah to read?”) |
| m145 | The lion in a well | A weak (animal) person demonstrates a strong one his reflection in water. The latter believes that an animal like he contests his supremacy, invites him for a visit, etc., usually jumps in and drowns |
| m146 | The fox gets bait from trap by luring wolf into it | An animal knows that food is in a trap or poisoned and tricks another to take it |
| m147b | The fox rids himself of fleas | When foxes (wolves) meet and dogs begin to chase them, one of the foxes says that their next meeting will be at the bazaar where pelts are sold |
| m148 | Animal agrees to be eaten up | One animal person persuades another to agree to be eaten up, usually promising a reward after the resurrection. The fool agrees and is eaten up |
| m149b | Dogs inside | A man tells that there are dangerous animals inside him (or in a box he has) that can come out. A predator who was going to eat the man up (or to bite him) believes him and runs away |
| m152 | Why only one wolf? | When a weak animal or a person gets to see a predator animal or an ogre, he says in a loud voice (or asks to say his wife or children) something that frightens the predator (ogre): why the predator (ogre) brought to him is lean (small; only one instead of several), or it is good that more food gets to his house, etc. The predator (ogre) runs away |
| m152a | Animal tied to another for safety | A stronger and a weaker predator animals (ogre and an animal) tie together for safety. When the stronger one runs away, he drags the weaker one along with him |
| m152b | Brave donkey and cowardly lion | Getting to see a donkey (horse, deer) for the first time, a strong predator thinks that this animal is dangerous. His further interpretation of the herbivorous’ behavior supports this impression |
| m153 | Letter on the hoof | The wolf (lion, etc.) is going to eat a horse (mule, etc.). The horse asks him to look at his hoof (for different reasons) or eat him from his hindquarters forward; then he kicks him |
| m156 | The ungrateful one returned to captivity | An (animal) person saves a dangerous animal from a snare or the like. The saved one is going to kill his savior but the third person saves the second (usually tricks the first one to captivity again) |
| m157b | To take the one thing she holds dearest | Husband casts his wife out but allows her to take the one thing she holds dearest. She takes her sleeping or drunk husband with her and thus moves him to forgive her |
| m162 | Eating his own innards | Person pretends to eat his own innards or flesh and persuades the other to do the same. Other believes and kills themselves |
| m163 | The precious cat | Person gets to a country where rats or mice are a plague and receives a fortune selling a cat |
| m165 | Fur coat for the wolf | One animal person promises to sew a fur coat (or boots) for another and asks to bring him ever more sheep. He eats the meat and sews nothing |
| m177 | But he had no heart at all | A weak predator eats part of a body of a killed animal and explain to the strong one that this animal did not have such a part at all |
| m177a | Guilty is the one who is silent | One animal person teaches another to be silent or to look to the side (down, etc.) when the third one becomes to ask them who had eaten the best piece of meat. It is a trick because the third one decides that guilty is the second one |
| m185 | On the tail of the fast one (animals) | A slow and a fast animals (or not flying bird) agree to race. The slow one imperceptibly sticks to the fast one’s body (or to a vehicle) and getting to the finish pretends to come there simultaneously with the fast one or before him |
| m187b | The swiftest runner must receive the harvest | The swiftest runner must receive the harvest |
| m191 | Cat and wild animals | The fox (dog, squirrel) lives with the cat and poses him as a strong and dangerous animal. The wild predator animals are scared and bring him meat |
| m195b | The three dolls | Person inserts a spike (thread, wire, etc.) into the ear of every of the two or three dolls (skulls). Each time the result is different, the spike comes out of different openings (or does not enter, or sticks inside, etc.). The dolls (skulls) represent different sorts of persons (inattentive and superfluous, wise, etc.) |
| m195c | Smart or lucky one solves problems | Persons of high status cannot reveal the hidden difference between two or more objects or creatures (or two sides of an objects of creature) which look similar. A smart or lucky person of lower status does it |
| m197 | The effectiveness of fire | Seriously or demonstrating absurdity of the situation, a person tries to cook something using a fire (a source of light) that is far away from the object to be cooked |
| m197a | The pot has a child and dies | A borrower returns a cattle (pot) together with a small one, claiming that the cattle gave birth to a child. He borrows the pot again but does not return it, claiming that the pot dies |
| m198 | Wise brothers (the king is bastard) | When three brothers (rare: a person) are Invited to khan (judge, king, etc.) and served delicious food, they claim that the food and drink have a taste (smell) of a corpse, dog, goat etc. and/or their host is of a low descent or a bastard. Investigation confirms that their deduction was correct |
| m198a | Wise brothers (the strayed camel) | Three or four brothers (rare: one man) see the track of a domestic animal and are able to deduce how it looked like (lame, had no tale, carried oil and honey, etc.) or they deduce how the man who had stolen the animal looks like |
| m198a1 | The eldest: it is round, the middle: it is hard, the youngest: it is a nut! | Three brothers in succession and without obvious reason describe an object or a person which or whom they have never seen |
| m198a3 | Who did steal the ruby? | One of the brothers steals a treasure for which all of them have equal rights or he is a bastard. Brothers come to a powerful person and want him to say who of them is the thief or the bastard. Usually the person tells a story and discovers the guilty one considering his reaction |
| m198a4 | Which was the noblest act? | Listeners of a story must answer whom they liked more: a husband who let his wife go to another man, a robber who did not harm her, or the other man who immediately sent her back to her husband |
| m198b | The pretended astrologer | A person who has not a bit of a skill to expose thieves and find the lost objects does it successfully thanks to a series of lucky coincidences |
| m198b2 | Grasshopper by name, the astrologer | A king (landlord, etc.) suggests to guess what he has in his hand (in a box). It is an insect there (usually a grasshopper). The man says that now you, Grasshopper, is caught. People think that he gave the correct answer |
| m199 | Squeezing the (supposed) stone | A man or a weak animal and an ogre (giant, devil) have a contest to see which of them can squeeze a stone. The man squeezes a cheese (egg, turnip) and thus intimidates the ogre |
| m199a | Extracting brain from the earth | A man buries something half-liquid and soft (animal bowels, eggs, etc.). He stamps (shoots an arrow) at this place and claims that got to extract brains (bowels, etc.) from the earth |
| m27 | Coming back from the sky | A tree or a chain of reeds by which people have ascended to the sky is destroyed. On their way back they fall to the ground. Some of them remain in the sky for ever or longer than others |
| m29b | Trickster-fox, jackal or coyote | In episodes related to deception, absurd, obscene or anti-social behavior the protagonist is fox, jackal or coyote |
| m29b1 | The wolf is a failure | Because of its stupidity and unsocial behavior, the wolf suffers a reverse, is injured or dies |
| m29b2 | The bear is a failure/enemy | Because of its stupidity or unsocial behavior, the bear suffers a reverse, is injured or dies |
| m29g | Trickster-hare or rabbit | In episodes related to deception, absurd, obscene or anti-social behavior the protagonist is hare or rabbit |
| m29w2 | The tiger is a failure | Because of its stupidity and unsocial behavior, the tiger suffers a reverse, is injured or dies |
| m29w3 | The lion is a failure | Because of its stupidity and unsocial behavior, the lion suffers a reverse, is injured or dies |
| m29z | The Beardless | Person named as the Beardless (Kusa, Kesa, Kose, Kysa, Kusu, etc.) acts in narratives |
| m29z1 | The Bald-headed | A bald person acts in narratives (thence his usual name: Taz, Tazchi, Kal, Keloglan, Kechal etc.) |
| m38d | Animated objects perish one after another | Two or several animated objects or small animals and live or travel together and perish one after another when they make the most simple acts |
| m38d1 | Neck like a hair | Persons whose body parts are obviously vulnerable (head like a bladder, neck like a hair, leg like a straw, etc.) attempt to behave normal people and perish one after the other. |
| m39a6 | Misunderstood instructions: to cut a road | A wayfarer asks his companion in an allegorical for to tell a story. The companion takes his words in the direct sense and acts stupidly or thinks that his companion is a fool |
| m39a6a | Clever daughter-in-law of the imprisoned khan | After an extensive search powerful man finds a smart wife for his son. Being caught by his enemies he sends some a message to his daughter-in-law, the messengers being chosen among the enemies. The young woman understands the real meaning of the received text, destroys the enemies and releases her father-in-law. (In Malagasy version the youngest wife is insyead of the daughter-in-law) |
| m39a6d | A coded message | A person sends to his or her kinsmen or spouse through other persons a text or an object. Only the receiver understands the real meaning of words or of the object, saves the sender and/or destroys his enemies |
| m39a6h | Plucking geese | King asks a commoner to pluck (skin, milk, cut) a goose (geese, other birds, animals) that he sends him. The commoner understands correctly that he is allowed to fleece a courtier |
| m39e | What sort of a tree? | Asking about minor details of the case, a judge demonstrates that the plaintiff (or the defendant) lies because he does (not) know about them |
| m39f | He had a hat, had he a head? | A fool loses his head (usually bitten off by a bear). His wife or companions cannot say had he his head before but remember that he certainly had a hat (beard) |
| m40 | The distorted instructions | Person is sent to receive something of relatively low value. He asks to give him quite different object (to provide a service) and asks one who had sent him to confirm the demand. Usually a person or animal comes to a wife or a son of a powerful one and tells her or him that her (his) husband or father tells to give him food, to make love to him, to marry him, etc. |
| m51 | Meat in a tree | One of two animal-persons kills game. In the absence of the stronger one, the weaker one hides the meat to eat it alone later |
| m57a | Beads discharged from the body | Instead of common body discharges a man or a woman urinates, spits, etc. beads, flowers, gold and other valuables; valuables are produced by the very presence of particular person |
| m57a1 | Flowers blossom where she puts her feet | Where the beautiful woman steps, treasure appears, flowers blossom, etc. |
| m57a2 | Male person is the producer of valuables | Instead of common body discharges a a man urinates, spits, etc. beads, flowers, gold and other valuables; valuables are produced by the very presence of particular male person. See motif m57a |
| m57a3 | Female person is the producer of valuables | Instead of common body discharges a a woman urinates, spits, etc. beads, flowers, gold and other valuables; valuables are produced by the very presence of particular female person. See motif m57a |
| m57d | Beat, cudgel! | Person gets one by one magic objects that bring food or treasure. Other people replace them with common objects or take them away by force. The person takes his property back (usually beating the thieves with magic cudgel or whip) |
| m57d1 | Bird presents objects and fulfills wishes | A bird gives a man several magic objects in succession (or one object which helps to get others) or fulfills in succession a series of his wishes |
| m57d2 | Tree grants a wish | When a man is going to fell a tree, the tree itself or the being who lives in (on) it asks him not to do it and grants the man’s wishes |
| m60a1 | Herdsman explains how to ferry | To come unnoticed to his adversaries, the hero takes the guise of a servant (usually a herdsman) and before that gets know from the real herdsman how to act and to speak with his masters (usually what should be said to ferry the cattle across a river) |
| m75b | Hero inside carcass | A man hides in a skin or carcass of a big animal. A bird carries it to its nest without knowing that the man is inside |
| m75b1a | The predestined wife | A man (usually of high social position) learns by a prediction that a (newborn) girl will be his future wife or a girl from rich family gets to know that her future husband is a poor man. The man (the girl, something else) attempts to kill the predestined marriage partner but only wounds her or him. After the wedding it becomes clear that the prediction is fulfilled |
| m75c | Treasure on mountain top | A man sends another one to top of a mountain or a tree to obtain treasure for him. To go back is impossible but the man survives |
| m77 | A soiled bed | While person is asleep, another smears with excrements or something that reminds excrements his or her bed or clothes. The ashamed person runs away or agrees to make what the trickster wants in exchange of his silence |
| m78 | A tiny boy (Thumbling) | Tiny boy as small as a thumb, a pea and the like taunts people, predator animals, ogres |
| m78a | Tail-boy | A wee boy is a transformed tail of a sheep or goat |
| m78f | A planted empryo | When a woman falls asleep, the trickster (usually a tiny boy) puts animal embryo or entrails (or something that looks like this) near her to make her or other people believe that she has had a miscarriage or her own entrails have fallen out |
| m78g | Tied together while being asleep | When household members fall asleep, the trickster (usually a tiny boy) ties them in pairs to make a mess when they get up |
| m83 | Who is older? | Somebody claims that he has been born before present world came into being. His opponent claims the same, and they argue who of them is the older |
| m83a | Crying for his dead children | Persons or animals argue who of them is older, some claim that they lived in such and such time, but the last one says that he remembers this day because a certain event had taken place at this time |
| m83b | Whose dream is better? | Two (or more) (animal)-persons agree that whichever of them has the most wonderful dream may eat all the food. The first one tells about a feast that he participated in his dream. His companion answers that he was sure that after such a feast (after getting into the paradise, etc.) the first one would not need the food, so he has eaten it alone |
| m90 | Snake gives a correct answer of what material the object is made | Somebody suggests to guess what sort of material a certain object is made of. Another person (usually a monster) gets to know the secret and the hero or the heroin must do what they have promised |
| m90a | To marry a man who would give a correct answer | A girl is promised to a man who would know her name or whose finger would fit her ring, or who would guess a material from which certain object is made or grown. Person finds a correct answer by deception |
| m90a1 | The louse skin | It should be guessed the nature of a big animal or its skin, the content of a box. The correct answer is that the animal is a louse (or a flea), a louse is in the box |
| m90a6 | Apples of immortality | Certain apples make their owner eternally young |
| m91 | The killed corpse | Person pretends that a person (often his or her mother, spouse or lover) who recently died is alive, claims that the death of the false alive resulted from negligence of others and gets a reward |
| m91a | Simulated killing (a bag with blood) | Person pierces a bladder with blood or red juice, simulates murder or suicide |
| m91b | The sold ashes | Using trick, a man sells or exchanges for treasure ashes. Another person tries to sell ashes and is ridiculed |
| m91b1 | The sold skin | A man goes to sell a skin of domestic animal and on his way, by trick or thanks to chance, gets a big sum of money. Usually coming back he explains that this was the price of the skin but when other people kill their animals they cannot sell skins for such a sum. (In India the hero sometimes pretends to sold cow meat to brahmins for whom it is forbidden) |
| m91c1 | Herd from the river bottom | Person gets other person’s possessions by trick (or pretends to get it; usually another person is drowned instead of him) and then demonstrates his possessions (usually a herd) and explains that he had received everything at the river bottom. His enemies believe him |
| m91c2 | Put into the bag | Person is put into a bag (a cage, tied up, etc.) to be drowned, burned, etc. He pretends to be in this situation by his own will or because he refuses to marry a princess, to become a chief and the like. Another person is willing to take his place and is killed |
| m91c3 | Hare the messenger | After warning his wife about the planned trick, person lets free a wild animal or bird asking it to pass a message to his wife. Seeing the same (actually another) animal or bird in his companion’s house another man buys the animal for a lot of money |
| m98 | Who are more numerous? | Person reckons up number of members in two enormous and alternative multitudes (alive trees and dead trees, men and women, etc.). Usually numbers prove to be equal but one member possesses the qualities of the both multitudes. Adding it to one of them, person demonstrates his case |
| m99 | Intention to exterminate birds | Person is going to exterminate birds but decides not to do thanks to a wise adviser |
| n10 | The transparent body | A woman (rare: a man) with transparent body is described. This transparence is an evidence of the beauty |
| n10b | The transparent neck | A girl (rare: a youth) with transparent neck is described, food or drinks swallowed by her or him are seen. Such a neck is an evidence of the beauty |
| n21 | The Dough-strong man | The warrior-hero was made of dough and then became alive (his name is “The Dough”) |
| n27 | The milk of birds | Bird’s (hen’s) milk is mentioned in fairy tales, riddles and proverbs as something very rare and difficult to obtain |
| n27c | The bird has no milk | It is claimed that the bird has no milk and/or breasts |
| n28a | The roots of rocks | Roots (belt) of rocks (stones, mountains) are mentioned in myths, riddles, proverbs, charms and songs as something that does not exist |
| n28c | Pillar of the sky | In a list of things that do not exist in the world, a pillar of the sky is mentioned |
| n28e | Bridge across the sea | In a list of things that do not exist in the world, a bridge across the sea, ocean or lake is mentioned |
| n28g | Horse has no gall | In a list of things that do not exist in the world, a gall of horse or ass is mentioned |
| n29 | Before the water starts to boil | The time required to perform an action or the time that has passed since the described event is estimated by comparing with the time required to boil the water and / or to cook a food |
| n3 | Hungry fingers | One of the fingers says that he is hungry and/or suggests to steal something. Other fingers express their opinion on this behalf. |
| n30 | Crying while looking in one direction and laughing while looking in another | The formula that describes the confusion of feelings: when a person looks in one direction, he or she cries, when in another – begins to laugh or smile; or one eye of a person laughs and another laughs; or person laughs looking at one object and weeps looking at another; or one of two persons who share the same fate laughs and another smiles, etc. |
| n34 | Honey and oil | Streams of honey and oil (oil and milk, milk and blood) instead of streams of water are mentioned as a sign of generosity and prosperity. Cf. motif K33F |